mouth-to-mouth advertising

[Dreadnought808 1]

As some of you might recall, I've been a supporter of CC from the beginning, and although I have put it on the shelf until the pathfinding patch comes out, I cannot understand how some fail to see the quality and potential already there.

So I was talking about my disappointment to a friend of mine, who had never heard of the game. I was telling him how great it was but that he shouldn't buy it yet, as the pathfinding was currently broken. He seemed barely interested at first, until I mentioned some of the ridiculous pathfinding stunts the walrusses have pulled off. I believe I mentioned elsewhere on these forums my little experiment with four walrusses out front of an enemy base with two weak targets inside- two of them ending in a lava river, one off a cliff and the other in a different enemy base.

After I mentioned a few of those stunts however, he suddenly perked up and decided to buy the game, because that sounded like a "rite laff!" So I'm sure he's now happily running all the walrusses on automatic, having them follow all sorts of parkours like a bunch of Lemmings on acid!

Point is this. There's many different kinds of people, and there's just as many different gamers. People who are saying that the pathfinding is fine, are quite ludicrously wrong. More accurate would be- they can enjoy the game as it is. If you drive around in a walrus on your own all day, as if it was a first person shooter, that's perfectly fine. If you don't mind taking a more direct control over your troops, that's perfectly fine too. As my friend proved, games can be liked for different reasons, in his case ludicrous AI. I myself managed to plow through a big chunk of the campaign and finished a few strategy games too. It's definitely playable and good fun. Walrusses not being able to go from A to B without making love to every rock and tree along the way, (and a wreck on the entirely other side of the island) does kiiiiiinda mean that something's not quite right though :D

So please, hold back on saying it's all perfectly fine, but also hold back on saying it's a complete disaster and doesn't work. The programmers have done an absolutely excellent job with it, and I'm sure that, after release of the pathfinding patch, this thing will turn into an absolute gem. This is coming from an oldtimer gamer/programmer who's played it all.

[tortuosit 486]

Point is this. There's many different kinds of people, and there's just as many different gamers. People who are saying that the pathfinding is fine, are quite ludicrously wrong. More accurate would be- they can enjoy the game as it is. If you drive around in a walrus on your own all day, as if it was a first person shooter, that's perfectly fine. If you don't mind taking a more direct control over your troops, that's perfectly fine too. As my friend proved, games can be liked for different reasons, in his case ludicrous AI. I myself managed to plow through a big chunk of the campaign and finished a few strategy games too. It's definitely playable and good fun. Walrusses not being able to go from A to B without making love to every rock and tree along the way, (and a wreck on the entirely other side of the island) does kiiiiiinda mean that something's not quite right though :D

So please, hold back on saying it's all perfectly fine, but also hold back on saying it's a complete disaster and doesn't work. The programmers have done an absolutely excellent job with it, and I'm sure that, after release of the pathfinding patch, this thing will turn into an absolute gem. This is coming from an oldtimer gamer/programmer who's played it all.

You're making some good points here. I think you won't stop people writing, BUT: people can stop reading opinions (but I cannot resist, unfortunately!) and very likely the gaming experience will be a better one, simply because you don't know about the games shortcomings and, as you write, you maybe enjoy them or maybe even don't experience them. We had a small thread about this a couple of weeks ago.

[Scepticer 1]

While I think the walrus AI is worthy all critique it gets I learned to live with it early. It is very much manageable for myself. The sad thing about it is that it probably knocked off 0.5-1.0 points out of 10 in all reviews... :/ ...and it will likely be fixed soon - a month too late.

With a patch or two, released mod tools, some continued support from BI and some time I think this game will last a long time. Hopefully it will be so good that mouth-to-mouth advertising will continue to generate sales over time -> So we get a super great follow-up game. :)

[Evmolpos 10]

Just for the history, there are many examples of games that didn't kick start so well, but have been improved by community and developer patching, and finally become a success later.

[CATOBAR 1]

FAO original poster

Whilst I would always agree the walrus antics are sometimes ridiculous adapting to the problem includes a good mixture switching to direct control, individual way points, using them in two teams of two, etc all help but never the less there's still times when it happens.

Getting stuck on tree's and rocks whilst under fire is by far the worse time for the walrus to practice its love making, but under normal circumstances its more laughable than annoying. The one that winds me right up is that the path finding algorithmic patterns state to me that the walrus can get up that cliff face when really it just cant, or when told to dock it plans a route right around the island. Despite being at the side of the carriers location.

But your also right you can still enjoy the game, I recently started using the manta hook to transport a walrus to the research center after taking control of the island and then bring it back home. Just to avoid the annoying parts of the drive there, or where possible send a single walrus to the research center in advance of taking the island. But the most secure method of fighting against the effects until the patch arrives is plenty of saving.

When I am asked the question "Is it worth playing or buying" I tell them to try the demo, and if you buy it be prepared for some disappointment but don't let that effect your decision and if your unsure wait till it comes down in price a little.

For myself I am glad of my purchase regardless of its shortfalls.

Edited October 16, 2012 by CATOBAR